


I just can't (get you out of my head)

by dishonestdreams



Series: Scribblers Challenge [2]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Gen, Mental Coercion, Mental Instability, Missing Scene, Power Imbalance, Swearing, Symbiotic Relationship, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 09:48:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20190298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dishonestdreams/pseuds/dishonestdreams
Summary: Eddie's losing his fucking mind.  Venom's losing his patience.





	I just can't (get you out of my head)

**Author's Note:**

> Scribblers monthly writing challenge ficlet (posted an appalling number of months later than due), The aim this time was a ficlet of at least 500 words, including a character not previously written who has at least one line of dialogue, for the prompt _Are you kidding me? We're not 'fine'_
> 
> Clearly what this required was writing something in a brand new fandom (which, co-incidentally, fits very well into the 'write in 100 different fandoms challenge that Mistress Kat has coerced me into playing). This is something of a missing scene from the movie (set directly after Venom first shows himself to Eddie, and the subsequent trip to the news network).
> 
> Quick, dirty and unbeta'd as ever.

Eddie’s got a parasite. Eddie. Parasite. Parasite. Eddie. Eddie’s got a parasite got a parasite _gotaparasitegotaparasiteparasiteparasiteparasiteparasite_.

The words are rattling around in his head like loose marbles and Eddie’s losing his fucking mind.

**(You are a loser, Eddie)**

His own face stares back at him in the mirror but he hardly fucking recognises it; bloodshot, sunken eyes with skin that’s too pale under the dirt and an unhappy twist to his mouth. His hair is a mess; still wet, half-plastered against his head, half sticking up in unruly tufts. He wraps his fingers carefully around the edge of the sink and presses down until the porcelain bites into his skin.

Eddie’s losing his fucking mind in a public bathroom, and he looks like _shit_. Because he’s got a fucking parasite.

(If he cuts out his own eye, can he claw it out of his head? Parasite _parasiteparasiteparasite_).

**(I am Venom and you…are mine)**

Dan says it’ll be okay. Dan says he can get it out. He can fix it. Give Eddie some medicine, or what the fuck ever they use for parasites and then it’ll be gone and Eddie will be okay and he can just forget this ever happened. He can forget about Carlton Drake. He can forget about voices and black and hunger and…

He can forget about eating… He can forget about eat… He can…

He _can’t_.

**(Never gonna happen)**

Eddie’s losing his fucking mind and he’s going to throw up. Again.

The stall is only a few steps behind him but he still only barely makes it before his stomach stages a full scale revolt and he’s heaving; his breath coming in short, staccato hiccups as bile burns his throat, although there’s nothing left in his stomach to come up and he’s left dry heaving into the bowl, his eyes watering and his hands planted on the wall on either side to keep him on his feet.

**We do not have time for this**. It – _Venom_ – sounds pissed and Eddie flinches.

“Sorry,” he mutters, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, and immediately hates himself just a little bit more. “_Fuck_.”

**Stop.** Venom says dismissively, and Eddie’s stomach lurches uncomfortably again. **We are fine. You are melodramatic.**

Eddie’s laugh catches him by surprise, although calling it a laugh is something of a stretch; it’s a desperate, choking sound that spasms in his chest and twists into something closer to a sob by the time it’s done. Venom might be fine, but Eddie’s not. Eddie’s so far away from fine that he’s almost circled around to see it again from the other side. He’s scared, he realises, and not in the way that most people get scared when they’re sick. His is something more _literal_; sure, he’s scared of what being _infected_ with Venom is going to do to him, but he’s also scared of Venom and of what Venom is going to do, full stop. Of what Venom is going to make _him_ do. Venom isn’t just some abstract threat to his health; Venom is a real and immediate danger to Eddie and to everyone around him.

He’s not scared because he has a parasite. He’s scared _of_ his parasite.

The stall door slams shut behind him, and Eddie barely has a second to realise that he (they?) did that before he’s propelled backwards to crash into the laminate covered wood with enough force to rattle his teeth in his mouth and force the breath out of his chest. He’s pinned like a butterfly on a display board, just like in the alley, and he twists against the door, his muscles flexing uselessly against the invisible force that’s holding him up.

**Not. A. Parasite.** And, oh _God_, Eddie had been wrong before, because now, now Venom sounds pissed and Eddie can’t help it; his struggles intensify, muscles flexing as he fights to drag himself off the wall. He needs to get _away (and go where, Eddie? He’s in your fucking head)_ and despite himself, despite the fact that he _knows_ it’s futile, he can’t stop straining against his invisible bonds.

**Stop fighting.** Venom says, and Eddie’s fingers curl reflexively into a useless fist. **You can’t win. You should co-operate.**

“Fuck you,” Eddie bites out. “Quit fucking with my head.”

**I’m not…fucking with your head. I’m in your head. We talked about this.**

Eddie shakes his head (he hopes it gives Venom vertigo). “You talked. I tried not to throw up.”

**Stop being a pussy.** Exasperated. That’s how Venom sounds now and Eddie will _take it_ because it’s a hell of a lot better than pissed.

“Wow,” Eddie says, “_Wow_. Really? Man up, Eddie? You’re fucking me up here, man.”

**Not yet.**

Eddie’s breath stutters in his chest, burning in his lungs, and he tugs again against Venom’s hold. “I- what does that even mean?”

**You’re not this stupid. I’m in your head, Eddie. I _get_ you. We haven’t even begun to explore what you and I could do together.** Venom pauses, and then adds, almost thoughtfully, **Or what I could do to you. If I chose.**

“Fuck,” Eddie breathes out, more exhale than word and his fingers twitch helplessly. “_Fuck_.”

_Parasiteparasitefuckingparasite_. The mantra’s back in his head; panicked repetition that’s paradoxically soothing, like a prayer. Eddie thinks he gets it, why Venom hates the word so much. He doesn’t hate it because it’s a lie. He hates it because it’s fucking _true_. Venom _is_ a parasite; an unwanted invader causing fuck only knows what damage (Dan will know; please fuck, Dan can fix it) and what does Eddie get out of it? Years and years of therapy, that’s what, assuming he survives long enough to go for it.

It’s such _bullshit_.

“We’re not doing anything together,” Eddie says, and he’s ignoring every survival instinct he has (but then, when has _that_ been not true?) but now he’s started, he can’t stop. “We’re not a fucking team, this is not a…a…a fucking _group effort_. You just, you just jumped right into my head like you had _any fucking right_ and now you won’t leave. You’re a fucking infection, you’re a disease. You’re scary as fuck but you _are_ a fucking parasite and you eat people and you make _me_ eat _things_ and, and, and. There’s no fucking _we_ here.”

The words hang in the air, and there’s a long ominous silence in his head, just enough for Eddie to regret his big, _stupid_ mouth. Then Venom just says, **Bad choice, Eddie.**

And then it’s agony.

Eddie screams as every nerve ending in his body lights up like it’s fucking Christmas. It’s a fleeting sound, a split second of bright, brittle pain released into an empty room, and then Venom floods into his mouth, thick, heavy and viscous, trapping his scream in his throat more effectively than any gag. Trapping, not dissipating; the scream is still there because the _pain_ is still. It’s like barbs hooking into his skin everywhere at once, like his blood has transformed into slithering, biting things, chewing through his veins from the inside out, and he arches helplessly against the door in a fruitless attempt to pull away.

_Please_, he thinks desperately, and he doesn’t even know what he’s asking for other than not _this_. 

**I said co-operate. You chose this.** Venom’s implacable and Eddie’s chest heaves with a dry sob that has nowhere to go. He can feel burning tendrils crawling into his brain, and his _eyeballs_ are throbbing.

He’s going to die here, left slumped on a dirty floor in a nondescript public bathroom, burnt up from the inside out and no-one is going to care that he’s gone.

**You are ridiculous,** Venom says impatiently, and, just like that, the pain eases. Cool relief floods through Eddie’s veins and across his skin, leaving just the echo of _burningbitingripping_ behind it. Eddie draws a long, shuddering breath through a throat that’s suddenly clear and it takes everything he’s got to hold back the sob that wants to follow it.

He’s so, so fucked.

**You are fine,** Venom says, **We are fine** and now Eddie wants to laugh, albeit somewhat hysterically, because Venom’s so very, _very_ wrong. They’re not fine, they’re so far away from fine that they’re not even on the same map anymore. Eddie might be flying blind right now but he knows one thing for sure.

He’s _not_ fine.

Not that any of that matters if he wants to live through this (and honestly, it’s a coin toss right now whether he thinks he really does). His para-symbiote, _symbiote_, has made that burningly clear. Literally. If he wants to survive, if he wants even the smallest chance of making it, he’s only got one choice and it’s the one Venom already gave him at least twice.

Co-operate.

Eddie will say one thing for pain; it’s _amazing_ at giving him some fucking clarity, whether he wants it or not.

(In some ways, he’d kinda like to slip back into that screaming panic he had going earlier. Clarity really only helps if you can use it to find a way out and all his clarity is telling him is that he’s fucked). 

Only one thing to do. 

“Yeah,” he croaks out, although the words make him feel sick to his stomach. “Yeah, sure. We’re fine.”

Venom’s silent for a long moment, long enough that Eddie thinks he might have fucked up again, before he hears **We are a team.**

“Sure,” Eddie says again, because why the fuck not. He’s already screwed. “We’re a team.”

**Good,** Venom sounds decisive, **We have things to do.**

Eddie flinches before he can catch it. “What kind of things?” he asks, to cover the slip, although he’s still not sure how well that works when the…_thing_… you’re trying to fool is inside your own head.

Thankfully, Venom doesn’t seem to notice. **I told you. Carlton Drake’s rocket.**

“Right, right,” Eddie says, “Let’s do that then.”

He slides off the door as Venom finally releases him, and he has to lean against the stall divider for a minute before his shaky legs feel strong enough to hold him up. It gives him a chance to catch his breath and by the time he pushes away from the cheap plastic there’s half a plan formulating in his head. He’s got to cut Annie off, that much is clear. He’s not safe for her to be around right now (and that means he’s cutting himself off from Dan’s help as well, so he’s still royally fucked in that regard, but he doesn’t figure it really matters. For all his reassuring promises, Eddie’s pretty sure Dan doesn’t really know _shit_ about how to deal with something like Venom. Eddie doesn’t think _anyone_ knows shit about dealing with something like Venom). 

So, yeah; that’s step one. Save Annie. Step two, well, Eddie’s not thinking too hard about that, mostly because of that whole _losing his fucking mind_ thing. The way he sees it, he’s already screwed six ways from Sunday and going along with Venom is practically signing his own death certificate (not that he’s got a _choice_ but he’s trying not to think too hard about that either). If he’s stuck with his symbiote, and it looks a lot like he is, he thinks he can see at least one possible consolation. 

Maybe he can take that bastard Drake down with him.

“I need to make a stop on the way,” Eddie says, and in his head, Venom hums agreeably.

**Sure,** he (Jesus, Eddie, _it_) says. **I’m not unreasonable. We’re a team.**


End file.
